Video Freeze

Tue Jun 28 01:05:43 UTC 2016

On Mon, 2016-06-27 at 13:02 -0500, Tommy Trussell wrote:
> 
> On Sun, Jun 26, 2016 at 3:24 PM, Chris <cpollock at embarqmail.com>
> wrote:
>         I experienced a video freeze this afternoon running 14.04.4
>         LTS with the
>         kernel shown in my sig. Some trace information was inserted
>         into my
>         syslog which I've put up on Pastebin and can be downloaded
>         here -
>         https://pastebin.com/d2Kp7vQ3 can anyone tell me what this
>         might mean
>         and is it related to a video freeze in which the clock is
>         frozen, the
>         mouse cursor will move but I can't switch between desktops
>         however all
>         background processes, fetchmail, procmail, Spamassassin and
>         others
>         continue to run.
>         
>         Thanks
>         Chris
>         
>         --
>         Chris
>         KeyID 0xE372A7DA98E6705C
>         31.11°N 97.89°W (Elev. 1092 ft)
>         15:19:18 up 2:12, 1 user, load average: 0.81, 0.64, 0.56
>         Ubuntu 14.04.4 LTS, kernel 4.4.0-24-generic #43~14.04.1-Ubuntu
>         SMP Thu
>         Jun 9 09:46:12 UTC 2016
>         
> 
> 
> I have had similar freezes in the past few weeks, but only after I
> installed the HWE kernel / "LTS Enablement
> Stack" https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/LTSEnablementStack -- which on
> my system installed the 4.2.0-38 generic kernel -- SO I presume some
> sort of strangeness with the kernel and video driver or something, and
> it might be very difficult to blame the bug on the kernel, the video
> driver, or the application that froze the display.
> 
I've had video freeze issues since Sept of 2014 shortly after I
installed 14.04 lts. This is what my syslog would show:

[drm:i915_hangcheck_elapsed] *ERROR* Hangcheck timer elapsed... render
ring idle

As time progressed and the kernel versions I ran the hangcheck error
would still show up, even into this year. However, there are times when
there was a freeze but the hangcheck error would not be noted. I've even
gone as high as kernel 4.7* and would get a video freeze. Following
advice from a person on the Intel-Gfx list I removed the
xserver-xorg-video-intel driver and switched to the 'modeset driver'.
I've attached my Xorg.0.log file

In fact I just had another freeze about 45min ago and had to SSH in with my tablet and reboot from there.

> 
> Note that after doing this, I am no longer running a "pure" 14.04 LTS
> "Trusty" setup, AND neither are you -- in fact your kernel is newer
> than mine -- it's a Xenial kernel.
> 
> 
> In my case the freezes have occurred only when running Chromium with a
> YouTube video set at full screen. The first thing you might want to
> check (if you're using Google Chrome or Chromium) is to go into the
> Advanced settings and make sure "Use hardware acceleration when
> available" is turned OFF. 
> 
I run FireFox V47.0 and did have HW acceleration on so I've since set it to off.

> 
> Now my system freezes only when the video is full screen, fairly long
> (like an hour) and only after I have been watching it for more than a
> few minutes. I figure the decreased circumstances are an improvement,
> but not worth complaining about since I'm no longer running a "pure"
> LTS system.
> 
I guess you could say my system hasn't been pure for a long time. Depending on who you
talk to whether it's someone who works on kernel bugs or someone on the Intel-Gfx list depends 
on what kernel I'm advised to run.

> Since you're running the Xenial kernel anyway, maybe it's time to
> consider doing a full upgrade to Ubuntu 16.04 "Xenial" and seeing if
> the freezes improve. If it doesn't improve, you may be able to better
> find a relevant bug to sign on to because when you are running a more
> standard setup. 
> 
I plan on that but I'm waiting for 16.04.1 before doing it. I'm not even running the
standard Ubuntu Gnome version. I'm running 3.12 and 14.04 comes with 3.10

> 
> I would suggest looking for bugs related to the GUI applications that
> happen to be running when your system freezes (including any screen
> savers), and also check for reports regarding the graphics display
> driver for your video card.
> 
The only GUI apps that are running anytime there is a freeze are Evo, FireFox, GKrellM and 
sometimes Nautilus. Since you mentioned about GUI apps I just shut down GKrellM as a test.
I've got no screensavers running at all though I used to run XScreensaver but stopped that
long ago as a test to see if it was causing issues which apparently it wasn't.

Chris

-- 
Chris
KeyID 0xE372A7DA98E6705C
31.11°N 97.89°W (Elev. 1092 ft)
19:45:45 up 2 min, 1 user, load average: 3.81, 1.51, 0.56
Ubuntu 14.04.4 LTS, kernel 4.4.0-28-generic #47~14.04.1-Ubuntu SMP Fri
Jun 24 16:30:35 UTC 2016
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